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An aerial view of Uber’s fake city in the Hazelwood neighborhood of Pittsburgh. Uber Uber is testing its self-driving cars in a fake city it built in Pittsburgh, called Almono. The fake city has a giant roundabout, fake cars, and roaming mannequins that jump out into the street without warning. Uber also uses Almono to train vehicle operators before allowing them to monitor the cars in the real world. Uber’s…

Know your audience Jeremy Selwyn/Evening Standard/eyevine TARGETED advertising isn’t confined to the internet. Later this month, a mammoth 790-square-metre electronic billboard in London’s Piccadilly Circus will start displaying ads based on the make, model and colour of passing cars, identified by cameras hidden in the screen. Companies can choose which kinds of vehicle trigger their ads. It’s not the first case of targeted ads in the physical world….

The driverless trials will include two passengers: an engineer sitting behind the wheel to monitor and evaluate performance, and a second person in the passenger seat, according to the governor’s announcement. Such tests were recently made legal with legislation passed as part of New York’s 2018 budget. “Autonomous vehicles have the potential to save time and save lives,” Mr. Cuomo said in a statement. “The spirit of innovation is what…

Good morning! Welcome to The Morning Shift, your roundup of the auto news you crave, all in one place every weekday morning. Here are the important stories you need to know. 1st Gear: It’s Hard Out There For A Startup We’ve seen this time and time again: new startups and tech giants think they can do car manufacturing. How hard can it be, they must wonder, until they discover that…

Alfa Romeo Stelvio is Alfa Romeo’s latest car, a mid-size SUV It is named after Italy’s most famous mountain pass. That alone raises expectations. Then for Alfa Romeo, a car marque generally associated with crafting sporty, sexy little cars, to venture down the more sensible sports-utility path, is altogether another. So, it was with little trepidation that I took to the wheels of the Stelvio. Incidentally, Alfa did flirt with…

One of the original swoopy-coupe four-doors is ready to enter a new generation. Audi tweeted out a teaser for its next-generation A7 hatchback. The tweet also promised that the new A7 would be unveiled on Oct. 19. The company gave out a teaser with its tweet, showing off the A7′s new-but-still-familiar fastback rear end. Enlarge Image Don’t mess with success. Audi While there isn’t much to glean from the teaser,…

Image copyright Getty Images Daimler is recalling about 400,000 Mercedes-Benz cars in the UK over a potential airbag safety issue. The problem affects certain A, B, C, and E-Class models, together with CLA, GLA and GLC vehicles, built between November 2011 and July 2017. The recall is not related to the exploding Takata airbag scandal, and there have been no fatalities. The fix for the airbag issue takes only an…

The spectre of our cities choking with unhealthy air has prompted numerous governments to mandate a transition to electric cars. Their concerns are well founded, even if their proposals fall short of what is needed. Over the past four decades, cars have become far less polluting. Their fuel efficiency has practically doubled and their tailpipe emissions have been reduced by more than 95%. Yet cities such as London and Paris…

Overdrive it though, and after an adroit turn-in the tyres squirm and it has a top-heavy yaw, which feels horrible. This is the handling writing cheques the high-riding, heavyweight nature of an SUV can’t honour. If you are looking for fine handling and fast distribution of lots of stuff, BMW produces a more than adequate 5-series Touring estate. The X3 rides nicely over broken surfaces, even the M40i on its…

Overdrive it though, and after an adroit turn-in the tyres squirm and it has a top-heavy yaw, which feels horrible. This is the handling writing cheques the high-riding, heavyweight nature of an SUV can’t honour. If you are looking for fine handling and fast distribution of lots of stuff, BMW produces a more than adequate 5-series Touring estate. The X3 rides nicely over broken surfaces, even the M40i on its…

The Christian Democrats promised to give the state’s two seats on the carmaker’s 20-person supervisory board to business experts rather than politicians, as has been the case. Critics contend that weak oversight by the supervisory board helped create an environment where wrongdoing could fester. Photo Stephan Weil, the prime minister of Lower Saxony in Germany and the leader of the Social Democrats in the state. He holds a seat on…

The time has come to mourn the death of yet another sporty car nameplate. This one doesn’t affect the North American market, and while inevitable, it’s kind of a bummer nonetheless. The Volkswagen Scirocco is no more. Volkswagen’s German site and various media outlets confirmed the hatchback’s death this week, saying that prospective buyers in the markets where the Scirocco is sold cannot order new ones, but can only buy…

x Embed x Share CLOSE President Trump applauded Toyota and Mazda’s plan to set up the joint venture in the USA and create up to 4,000 jobs. Wochit Ken Fisher(Photo: Fisher Investments) Several weeks ago I saw the future of cars laid out by Akio Toyoda, Toyota’s CEO, in a presentation at its American headquarters in Plano, Texas. He wants your Toyota to be more fun than anyone else’s…

The most wonderful and most terrible things about new technologies are their emergent properties. The latest example is, of course, Fake News On Facebook; who would have thought that connecting everyone via social media would lead to wildly divergent narratives of (so-called) reality? And yet here we are. But if you think social media is messy and weird … just wait until we get self-driving cars. This isn’t a non…

It took all 60 minutes to decide a winner in Saturday’s SEC showdown between South Carolina and Tennessee. The Volunteers faced a third and goal on the game’s final play from the Gamecocks’ 2-yard line when Tennessee quarterback Jarrett Guarantano rolled to his right and threw a pass intended for receiver Brandon Johnson. The pass fell incomplete, sealing a 15-9 victory for South Carolina.
RELATED: Clemson’s Dabo Swinney…

The Audi Q5 was all mine … for a day.Melia Robinson/Business Insider Audi wants to put you in its vehicles — without the commitment of buying a new luxury car. The luxury automaker launched a rent-a-car-service called Audi On Demand in San Francisco in 2015. The service lets you rent an Audi vehicle for a day (or for as long as a month) from your smartphone. Car enthusiasts will find a huge…